The Yamaha RD350: Blast from the fast

Lock, stock and two smoking barrels, the Yamaha RD350 was as fast they came. A fond look back...

The year was 1983. A time when as a country, we were still waking up to colour TV. There were three cars to choose from. And as far as motorcycles went, you could either get a 1960s Czech motorcycle built in Mysore or an even more primeval British one built in Chennai.

This was until someone from up-north went ahead and decided to launch a two-wheeled missile on rather unsuspecting souls. At a time when most automobiles barely put out double digit power outputs, these guys came up with a motorcycle that bettered it. I mean, what were they thinking? Because whatever it was, it was brilliant.

Now the guys who did this were the Nandas and the said missile was the legendary Yamaha RD350. Part motorcycle part blitzkrieg, the RD was as futuristic to the Indian consumer, as an AK-47 was to the Taliban in their early days. For the first time ever we knew what it was like to have a tachometer on board, to have six gears to go through and to have an engine driven oil pump.

To go with all that jazz, it had the equipment too. A parallel twin, the RD was powered by a 350cc two-stroke motor that hadn’t just won hearts all over the world, it had won races too. That’s because the geniuses at Yamaha managed to put out an absolutely mind blowing 39bhp from that motor. With that sort of power, in that light a package, the Yamaha didn’t just beat much bigger motorcycles on the track, it humiliated them. Riders hailed it as the ‘Giant Killer’ and Yamaha too put out an ad campaign to that effect.

Over here of course fuel conditions and the economics meant that the motorcycle only put out 32 bhp. But that was enough for young boys to hold their crotch in glee every time one zoomed by. With so much power, the RD would hit 60 kph before you could bat an eyelid and the ton didn’t take much longer either. And if you were gutsy enough to keep the throttle open, the result was a mind-numbing 160 kph. Acceleration was soul stirring to say the least but then there was the handling. The RD would attack corners in the same sort of fury that a Greyhound would attack a juicy bone. Cornering Nirvana to say the least. Mind you, even today this Yamaha would chew our fastest motorcycles and spit them out the exhaust. Simply put, the RD350 was the beginning and the end of the performance chapter in India’s motorcycling history.

So then what went wrong for the Don? Well, for starters the RD had its own share of problems. The CB-point ignition that it came with was excellent when the going was good, but it was often a real Pandora’s box. Then there was the fuel economy. The RD might have had more power than most automobiles at that time, but its fuel efficiency wasn’t much better either. To improve fuel consumption, Escorts detuned the motorcycle further to 27bhp but escalating fuel costs had already dug the RD’s grave.

Sure the Yam was ahead of its time but then it was a motorcycle that struck a chord with its rider every time he even kick-started one. It oozed character and knocked on the doors of insanity, making it even more desirable. Virtues that appealed to people then, and virtues that appeal to them even now.

No wonder then, that so many of them are still around. And if you too want to know what a performance motorcycle really is, you should get one of these. Trust me, take one for a spin and you will know what it’s like to feel alive on a motorcycle.